Mr Forgeard joined Matra, a defence firm, in 1987.
Mr Prince says he never intended to build a new sort of defence firm.
But it is not fail-safe.BAE Systems, a British defence firm, is devising an alternative.
Last spring, it was outbid for TRW, a top American defence firm.
BAE Systems, a British defence firm, is building a ship-mounted electromagnetic gun.
Over the past few years, Arnaud Lagardère has turned Lagardère, his father's defence firm, into a big media group.
After spells at printer Rockwell Graphics, defence firm ML Holdings and busmaker Dennis, he joined Manganese, initially as finance director.
The trio with an all-male executive committee are Shell, the defence firm Babcock, and Provident Financial.
The new helicopters will be built by an international team led by Lockheed Martin based on a design by AgustaWestland, an arm of the Italian defence firm Finmeccanica.
He built on the research of William Brown of Raytheon, an American defence firm, who pioneered the transmission of electric power by microwave beams.
The programme had also been dogged by a protracted legal battle with the original contractor, US tech and defence firm Raytheon.
